Early in May, we reported that the Connecticut Senate passed the a medical marijuana bill through its halls. All it needed to officially become law was the Governor's signature. Today, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy signed House Bill 5389 / Public Act 12-55 into law, effectively joining 16 other states as well as our nation's capitol, Washington, D.C., in making medical marijuana legal. 

The qualifying conditions include cancer, glaucoma, AIDS/HIV, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal chord damage, spasticity, epilepsy, cachexia, wasting syndrome, Chrohn's disease, post traumatic stress disorder, as well as a few others. 

"For years, we've heard from so many patients with chronic diseases who undergo treatments like chemotherapy or radiation and are denied the palliative benefits that medical marijuana would provide," Governor Malloy expressed in a statement. "With careful regulation and safeguards, this law will allow a doctor and a patient to decide what is in that patient's best interest." 

Under the law, patients would be required to acquire medical marijuana from dispensaries, who would be provided with their medicine from one of 10 state licensed producers and cultivators. Connecticut has gone to great lengths to make sure their law covers many of the pitfalls that other states have seen in theirs. For example, in Connecticut, patients must have both a doctor's recommendations as well as a registration form from the Department of Consumer Protection.

Additionally, a panel of doctors selected by the Department of Consumer Protections will determine how much medical marijuana a patient may possess, based on the illness. Perhaps the most significant differentiation is that medical marijuana will only be allowed to be provided by registered pharmacists approved by the Commissioner of the Department of Consumer Protection, and this medicine will be packaged in the exact same way as any other prescription drug according to dosage.